SOME PROBLEMS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOR 841 



The hired man, after a day of toil, by the dim light of a lantern was 

 milking several cows, and in ill temper over it, when he should have 

 been at his home having needed rest and relaxation. With every 

 blow that was knocking all possible profits out of my neighbor's cows, 

 I was convincingly impressed that the system of farm labor was upon 

 a wrong and uneconomic basis. Though other industries had adjusted 

 their labor to shorter hours with a gradual increase in wages, farming 

 was being conducted on the old line of long hours, and so was steadily 

 driving the best class of labor from that industry. 



Soon after this stable incident, the men working at my Orchard 

 Farm were informed that a change in working hours had been decided 

 upon, and that, thereafter, they would be required to work only ten 

 hours a day, but that I should expect that all necessary work would 

 be accomplished in the shorter time. The announcement was a sur- 

 prise to the men and it gave them a new understanding of farm work. 

 They at once put new activity, energy, and interest into their work. 

 A standard of greater efficiency was established. 



At the time of engaging men for the next year, applicants for work 

 under the new system were numerous, and among them was the man 

 who beat the cows. He was accepted and proved to be an intelligent 

 and faithful worker; and he remained on the farm for twenty-four 

 years. 



With the shorter hours of labor, with good schools and churches 

 within a short distance of the farm, with time and opportunity for 

 cultivating a few flowers about the home and reading the agricultural 

 papers and books that were supplied by the farm and by a well- 

 equipped school library, these families had no desire to give up farm 

 labor and to leave their farm homes for homes in the city where no 

 such privileges or comforts were possible. 



270. ATTRACTING AND HOLDING THE RIGHT KIND OF FARM 



HELP 1 



There is no hired help problem at Ravenswood, the 2,200-acre 

 farm of C. E. Leonard and Son, in central Missouri. Good tenant 

 houses, a community center, and all-the-year-round employment have 

 made possible the solution of this problem. This estate has been in 

 the Leonard family for almost a century, and the question of a suffi- 

 cient farm force made up of efficient and trustworthy workers has been 



1 Adapted from "Solving the Problem of Farm Labor," The World's Work, 

 XXVII (December, 1913), 230-35. 



